soft brick or HW failure

[david_grundmann]

So I was doing my normal morning routines sitting at table and checking weather quickly then suddenly it just stopped showing a screen. This set of events is exactly how my 5z died... the 6 I could at least hard-reboot
So I went to desperately try to fix to recover at least my authentication codes. What happens is that I can get it started but then dies at random points. Sometimes 5 seconds and other 1 minute. Eventually it just stopped responding to anything. The whole time I had to force reboot with pwr+vol down.
Problem at this point:
Getting a charging light or screen was not happening, no boot screen, no recovery mode.
At some random point I started to get a charging screen, at 92% battery after many,many pwr+vol_down. Then later on started to get into recovery. I did a full wipe in hopes it was software but that did nothing. I downloaded the latest image WW-17.1810.2005.153 for US variant I01_WDX but still nothing (which did a full install just fine without a lockup). Once I got back into a charging screen I let it go to 100% -- mostly because I was at it for a few hours and wanted lunch.
At this point it did boot but was very in-stable. First boot got past setting up wifi. Second got past setting google account. Last I was starting to sync all apps and such from google and all looked really promising then died -- back to the very beginning of not getting any lights/etc.
It almost seems like some kind of power delivery problem or some kind of thermal because when it's in this state i found that being in front of the AC and getting this cold makes it "work" - in that from a dead state I can get it to start showing charging screen (which is now 100%). It's hard to say thermal because it gets warm when it's working and being used when not crashing...
Observations:
Some boots the screen will show asus logo, then zenfone and screen will turn off, but still show zenfone booting, then shortly after will reboot.
I can get a red led but no screen with power in + pwr+vol_down - never gets out...
Phone seems "stable" when in lock screen for first time, after login it dies randomly


I need help, I really want this to be stable again. Is there anyway I can fully load the firmware/boot images manually or figure out why it's crashing/locking?

[Anders_ASUS]

You need to contact your local support to get it repaired

[david_grundmann]

I'm more convinced that this was some kind of software bug. The phone has been strangely stable despite me pushing it though multiple tests/stresses.
I'm more curious about testing now. Is there any android tools that allows me to validate ram stability (i.e. memtest86 in in linux) or similar to validate it's not some hardware component going?
As for local support, please advise on this. I looked at service centers in the US but non say "phone". I feel this is not the correct course now that I can't reproduce the problem anymore and I have my doubts about a service center doing something without seeing the problem.
Much appreciated, Dave

[david_grundmann]

Never mind, it's gotta be hardware. Died again and this time was much worse. I did my trick of putting it in front of the AC again which made it sort of work but never to boot, just enough to reset for RMA.

[LP_ASUS]

david.grundmann

I'm more convinced that this was some kind of software bug. The phone has been strangely stable despite me pushing it though multiple tests/stresses.

I'm more curious about testing now. Is there any android tools that allows me to validate ram stability (i.e. memtest86 in in linux) or similar to validate it's not some hardware component going?

As for local support, please advise on this. I looked at service centers in the US but non say "phone". I feel this is not the correct course now that I can't reproduce the problem anymore and I have my doubts about a service center doing something without seeing the problem.

Much appreciated, Dave

View post

Your phone has a 12 month warranty. If you need an RMA created, send me an email @cl-lane@asus.com and I can get one created for you. I work with the US Service team. As long as you provide notes of the error and how to recreate it, we should be able to do so at the service center.